Teresa Clark, 36, was ordered Monday to stand trial on attempted aggravated murder and aggravated cruelty to animals charges for allegedly trying to help a friend kill herself and causing the deaths of the woman’s Maltese dogs
A Utah woman has been ordered to stand trial on charges of attempted murder for allegedly trying three times to help her friend commit suicide so she could pocket her cash.
Following three hours of testimony during a preliminary hearing on Monday, First District Judge Thomas Wilmore ruled that there is probable cause to try 36-year-old Teresa Clark on two counts of attempted aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.
The Cache County woman could face an additional charge of aggravated murder, depending on the outcome of another preliminary hearing scheduled for next month.
Prosecutors say Clark supplied 55-year-old Karma Saltern with a cocktail of prescription medications to be used in her suicide.
The drugs instead ended up killing the woman’s two Maltese dogs, reported The Salt Lake Tribune.
In return for her help with the suicide, Saltern had allegedly promised Clark to leave her a large sum of money, furniture, clothing and two storage lockers filled with her belongings.
The two friends, who had known each other only a couple of months, had made their arrangement official by having Saltern sign a will leaving all of her possessions to Clark, along with two power-of-attorney declarations putting Clark in charge of her friend’s finances and medical decisions in the event she became incapacitated.
On June 25, 2017, police in Logan, Utah, found Saltern lying unconscious with her two dead dogs in a local hotel. She was taken to a hospital and revived.
Clark’s friend Karma Saltern, 55, took her own life in early September, while the suspect was being held in the Cache County Jail (pictured)
A search of Saltern’s room yielded empty prescription bottles for a sedative used to treat insomnia and an anti-anxiety medication, along with empty syringes, white powder, canine drugs and a pill crusher, according to a search affidavit.
When police learned from Saltern about Clark’s alleged involvement in her botched suicide attempt, they set up a phone call between the two women and recorded their conversation, which was played in court on Monday.
On the July 6 call, Saltern questioned Clark about what had gone wrong, with investigators surreptitiously listening in.
‘I want to talk about everything that happened, I want to make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ Saltern told Clarkl. ‘I want to make sure it’s done right this time.’
Clark defended herself by claiming that doctors had given Saltern a substance that saved her life.
The suicidal woman pressed Clark about the painful demise of her two dogs, whom she referred to as her babies, reported KSL.
‘What happened to my dogs? Why were they suffering so bad, Teresa? They were like going hysterical,’ Saltern demanded. ‘You were supposed to make sure I was dead so that I didn’t have to see them suffer.’
Clark replied: ‘I thought you were [dead].’
Saltern then told Clark she did not want to go on living without her dogs and asked what they would do differently the next time she tries to kill herself.
Clark promised to procure more pills for her that night and then stop by her hotel room after work to check on her.
At one point in the conversation, Clark became suspicious and asked Saltern whether she was with police. Saltern replied, ‘Why would I be at the cops?’
With police officers keeping an eye on Saltern from a distance, she went by her friend’s home to pick up the drugs, ultimately leading to the woman’s arrest.
On September 11, while Clark was being held in jail on $250,000 bond, Saltern was found dead from an apparent suicide in Provo. She left a suicide note.
Clark’s defense attorney insisted during a previous preliminary hearing to have it reflected in the official court record that his client had nothing to do with Saltenr’s death.
According to prosecutors, the first failed suicide attempt was made on June 27, when Clark tried to buy a gun for Saltern to kill herself, but she failed a background check.
Clark also allegedly suggested that Saltern slit her own throat while she held a knife in her hands, but the women decided not to go through with that plan.
During Monday’s hearing, Clarks’ lawyer Michael McGinnis argued that Saltern had been intent on ending her life, with his client’s aid or without it, and that she had made attempts to commit suicide even before Clark was in the picture.
She ultimately ended her life while the 36-year-old suspect was behind bars.
‘It’s the best alibi you can get,’ McGinnis said.
If convicted of attempted murder, Clark could be looking at a life sentence.